It will be 10 years since Thornton last wrote and directed a feature-length, fiction film, his last outing being 2001's Daddy and Them. Back in 1996, the actor won an Oscar for writing Sling Blade, a film he also directed and starred in.

So why did it take so long for Thornton to return to the director's chair?

"You don't want to do it until you have something that you really want to do that is personal to you," Thornton recently told Yahoo. "You get busy as an actor, and that's predominately what I am, is an actor."

Jayne Mansfield's Car also stars Kevin Bacon, Robert Duvall, John Hurt and Frances O'Connor. It will be released on-demand August 20 and hit theaters September 13.